So, my video card went bad...

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, it's pretty annoying. This actually happened a week ago or more, but I really need to do something about a replacement, and was wondering if any of you have any ideas. My old card was a GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb. Now, there are blue tilde marks all over the screen all the time when the computer's on, when I'm using it, and messed up stuff at boot too. I know it's the video card becasue I switched it with the other PCI Express card I have, a low-end Radeon X300, but that's ... not exactly a long-term solution, to say the least. It can barely handle Windows, much less games from the last five years or more. Anyway, there are no problems with this card in, so the problem is definitely the other card. I tried cleaning out the dust from it, but that didn't fix anything, so I assume it's done. :(

So yeah, I need something new. I've seen a few new or used video cards locally, but also of course tehre's online. I have a 600 watt power supply, so even if I was going to spend for the top stuff (I'm not), I couldn't get a Geforce 580 (or their new ones, whenever they release this year probably; ATI just released new stuff, so NVidia's going to be next...) I couldn't power it. I've heard that you can run just about anything up to a 560 on a good 600 watt power supply (mine's a Corsair GS600, so it's pretty decent), but even if I did want to spend that much, I don't know how much I'd want to push it power-wise...

Oh, as for ATI... yeah, I know their stuff is on average a bit cheaper, but I'd really rather not. I've always had NVidia, and ATI's drivers are worse too... maybe some other drivers would help, but sine installing ATI drivers a few days ago (for this X300) I've had more visual issues than I have since before I had this computer, the time after the 8800 broke excepted of course. For instance, it takes way too long to come back from suspend, and often reverses the two monitors when it does so... so annoying.

Um, as for locally available used cards, I saw an 8800GTS 320MB (yeah, same thing I have) for $45 and a GTX 280 1GB for $100. Of course new stuff (400-500 line) costs a good bit more than that. I'm not so sure about either of those, though... both are EVGA, same people who made my card that just failed, so would they just die on me? That place does have a warranty, so though prices are a bit lower for 280s on EBay it might be worth spending the bit extra to get that backup, but still...

So yeah, I need to figure this out, hopefully in not too long. I do want to be able to play recent computer games again. Maybe I'll end up spending more anyway and getting a 560 or something, I don't know. Buying soon before new cards come out isn't a good idea though...